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6 Ways That Stretching Can Help You Improve Your Physical and Mental Health

Various factors are contributing to the maintenance of our ideal health. Getting adequate sleep at night, drinking enough water throughout your day, and eating a well-balanced diet are considered the most known tips for living a healthy lifestyle.

However, being hydrated and eating properly plays a crucial part in caring for your heart and entire nervous system, but other parts of the body need support. Maintaining ideal health might seem too complicated, and paying enough attention to stiff joints and muscles should go a long way in helping you through your aim for a healthier lifestyle.

Stretching is considered to be among the most important aspects of any physical therapy program for this exact reason. While being regarded as the warm-up or cooling workout, stretching offers various benefits towards improving your physical and mental health that needs to be acknowledged as you wish to improve your health. It turns out that stretching is a lot more beneficial to our health than you initially thought, and this is much more than just preventing injury while working out. Despite being athletic, or always bent over due to your occupation, stretching daily or at least a few days a week should help you out greatly. Below are six different ways that stretching can help in improving your physical and mental health.

1. Enhanced Alignment

When your body is misaligned, you might start experiencing various physical and mental challenges in your body. However, when your body is aligned with a good stretching program, you are free to function efficiently, like experiencing fewer pains and acne, your lungs capable of expanding properly and distributing blood with adequate oxygen, and less strain or weight on your joints. A properly aligned body is also good in posture, which helps the mind and body. Poor posture leads to bad self-image, depression, soreness, and even more. Aligning your body by stretching can significantly improve and strengthen your posture, making way for a better posture in the future.

2. Injury Prevention

By stretching, you loosen and relax your muscles, which prepares them to be effective during athletics and exercise. With a warmed-up and prepared muscle, you will be able to move smoothly and efficiently, with a minimized risk of being injured. However, stretching does not get rid of the risk of being injured during exercise or athletic activities.

3. Helps To Heal And Prevent Back Pain

With tight muscles in your body, you can be experiencing a decreased range of motion. Through this, the chance of straining the back muscles is increased. Stretching can significantly help in healing an existing back injury by properly stretching the muscles. A regular stretching routine also helps prevent future back pain by strengthening the back muscles and minimizing the risk of muscle strain.

4. Stretching Enhances Blood Circulation

Stretching is also essential to the heart and musculoskeletal system by increasing the blood flow of the body. When the muscles are constricted and become tight, the flow of oxygen is inhibited. When we stretch, we gently tug and pull on our muscles and ligaments, which significantly increase blood flow through those areas. With an increased blood flow, you will think clearly, quickly recover from workouts, and get rid of unwanted toxins in the body.

5. Increased Energy

One of the most common benefits of increased blood flow is how it makes us feel refreshed. This feeling of refreshment significantly spikes our energy levels, which helps us carry out more tasks each day. By loosening the tight muscles, we will be able to realign our bodies to function as effectively as possible, letting us go about our daily lives and feeling highly energized.

6. Great For Stress Relief

When going through stress, there’s a high chance of our muscles being tensed. This is because our muscles seem to tighten in response to the current physical or emotional stress. While stretching, pay attention to areas of the body where you normally hold the stress, like the neck, upper back, and shoulders. Stretching the right muscles properly can alleviate tension by minimizing stress and calming our minds. Being in a calm state of mind allows us to be more creative and effective.

Normally fall asleep while working? Get up and stretch out! Feeling sore too? Stretching out should also help. Want to go for a run? Remember to stretch. We should always make out time throughout our day to stretch and relax our muscles, relieve stress, calm our minds, align our bodies, and enhance our quality of life.

Mapping out a daily stretching routine is not a complicated task to start with. Choose an open area that offers you enough space to move around. Using a yoga mat is a helpful and recommended way to create a safe space to easily get traction while you stretch. Putting on loose clothing which lets us move freely as we stretch is very important. Finally, as you start stretching, remember to keep yourself hydrated! Stretching may not feel like an intense activity, you are still advised to stay hydrated to properly support your muscles.

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